The Arts Bus Goes to Law School
VT Law & Graduate School Welcomes Art from Our Local Kids
September 18, 2024
South Royalton, VT — This week kicks off Vermont Law Review’s month-long “Safeguarding Tomorrow” symposium with a weekly lunch series, in-person and online, to be streamed at This Link on Thursday, September 19 at noon from Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Chase Student Center on its campus in South Royalton. The symposium is free and open to the public. You’ll learn about the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and explore the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions on ICWA and the long-term implications for Native American children and tribal sovereignty.
Vermont Law Review (VLR) students have partnered with The Arts Bus to bring a special art exhibit to the VLGS campus housed in the school’s Dean Shirley A. Jefferson Gallery titled “Me & We: Vermont’s Future State.” This locally-made art showcases more than 250 self portraits made by children throughout Central Vermont with help from The Art Bus in over 15 communities. A word from The Arts Bus…
“It is a visual representation of the individuality and potential of each child and a meaningful look into the future." Each portrait literally puts a face on what is at stake at VLR’s symposium: the future of our children and our state…
Together, The Arts Bus and VLR’s symposium highlight the need for a holistic approach to safeguarding the next generation, combining legal advocacy and creative empowerment.”
Charlotte Bierie JD’25, the VLR symposium editor, also a student attorney at the VLGS Environmental Justice Clinic, had this to say about partnering with The Arts Bus:
The Vermont Law Review chose to partner with The Arts Bus because their mission, to inspire the Vermont community through art, complements our legal symposium’s mission. Our symposium will be various discussions on topics in the law that directly impact children, such as, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), the impact of AI as it pertains to child pornography, LGBTQ+ students, and child labor laws in the rise of social media. Our partnership with The Arts Bus connects Vermont communities to these discussions and encourages reflection on identity and collective storytelling, inspiring meaningful dialogue on the legal and societal issues impacting children. By integrating art with legal discussion, our aim was to engage members of the community, both personally and professionally, to explore solutions that resonate locally and beyond.
Many thanks to Charlotte and her VLR colleagues, and especially to The Arts Bus executive director Genny Albert of Brookfield, VT and her team who masterminded all this wonderful creativity! I and everyone at Vermont Law and Graduate School hope you’ll stop by to enjoy the “Me and We” show so many hundreds of little hands have created. And tune into or join in person the “Safeguarding Tomorrow” Symposium this coming Thursday at noon to learn more about the Indian Child Welfare Act and its implications.
VLGS’s Shirley A. Jefferson Gallery is free and open to the public. Come explore this powerful local art as a gift from our children to you. The “Me and We” Arts Bus/VLR art show will be up through October 11 after which local artist/sculptor Elizabeth Billings of Tunbridge, VT will display her cyanotypes.
Dave Celone is vice president of alumni relations & development at Vermont Law and Graduate School from which he graduated some years back. He enjoys watching law & grad students and local community members experience art in a non-traditional space like the Dean Shirley A. Jefferson Gallery on the VLGS campus in South Royalton. For those who can’t make it campus, a photo gallery of the “Me and We” art show appears below. Fifteen towns in Central Vermont are represented. See if you can find your town!
